Victory Services Club
Stonebow helps improve organisational culture at Victory Services Club
Located in the heart of London's West End, The Victory Services Club (VSC) is a Private Members’ Club for retired and serving members of the Armed Forces. Since 1907, it has been providing quality events, conferencing facilities, hotel and hospitality services – and in 2006 and 2008 it received highly commended status in the 'Best Places to Work in Hospitality' awards. The award judges praised VSC’s "outstanding efforts to train its employees" and stated: "they really are fantastic – they deserve more than just a commendation."
Staff are the VSC’s key asset and there is a real commitment to continually developing the workforce, raising quality benchmarks for people skills and service delivery. As part of this commitment VSC has been partnering with Stonebow since 2003. It uses our training services to help it achieve organisational objectives for business growth and service improvement, and to plan out the training and development needs of individuals and teams within the organisation.
To find out more about the benefits of working with Stonebow, we chatted to VSC’s operations manager, Eamonn Cole.
Why Stonebow?
"We came to Stonebow as we wished to establish core programmes – especially for management – that ensured key competencies were taught and adopted across all areas. We wanted to ensure a clear career path for continuous professional development, including succession planning, higher retention and greater job satisfaction.
"The club aspired to be an employer of excellence, and a preferred employer within the London hospitality industry, and training is key to achieving such a reputation.
"Stonebow has delivered high quality, often bespoke, training and development programmes that meet the organisation’s objectives. They dedicate substantial time, and demonstrate a real commitment to growing our business and people through understanding our culture and business goals." What has the feedback been like from your staff?
"Nine out of ten staff attending Stonebow training rated it at 90 percent or above in its relevance to their needs, the quality of the course content and the effectiveness of the trainers.
"Many also commented that it had been very beneficial in their own personal career development and had equipped them with recognised qualifications.
"Our objective to grow outstanding managers and inspirational leaders was supported substantially through the partnership with Stonebow. It has helped to empower our staff and shift their beliefs about what a manager can achieve and aspire to.
"Core management competencies are identified and trained out, then individual career plans are agreed to develop people through the business. The requisite for career planning is very important – we recognise that whatever progression staff make in the VSC, eventually they may move on to other higher management positions elsewhere.
"Our staff are developed not just for their role within the club, but to equip them with management and industry skills to be successful when they move on." What do you value most about Stonebow’s training services?
"What we value most about Stonebow is its commitment to the partnership of growing our people and our business, the high quality of the course content and its relevance to meeting our needs, its dynamic and inspirational trainers, and excellent administration and support. It achieves all of this very competitively.
"We also appreciate the way Stonebow are committed to building relationships and spending time assessing the needs, rather than just suggesting solutions off the shelf. The programmes delivered by Stonebow have helped VSC nurture a successful, professional and productive workforce." What financial value has been added as a result of the training?
"Whilst continuing to invest on staff training and development, we were able to save considerable amounts on recruitment through improved retention. Our recruitments costs are down from £33,000 in 2006 to just £5,400 in this financial year.
"Our staff turnover has been reduced to only 14% – down from over 100% in 2003/04 – and staff satisfaction has been raised to over 90%.
"We have grown our events business by 300% in three years, eradicating an in-house catering subsidy of £144,000, increasing hotel occupancy from 64% to 88% and increasing sales turnover across the operation of 33%.
"We are also a preferred employer – we were highly commended by ‘Best Places to Work in Hospitality" in 2006 and 2008, and named an “Employer of Excellence” by Peninsula Business Services. VSC is a UKSP Good Employer and Centre for Training Excellence, and is also the first London events and conference venue to achieve AIM Gold Standard with the Meetings Industry Association.
"We believe that the training and development carried out in partnership with Stonebow has been the key factor in achieving this well deserved success."